Best Remote Support Software in 2025

Nowadays, effective connection with customers means everything but time-consuming face-to-face communication. The existence of remote support tools compensates the presence of an experienced consultant, enabling him to take care of your business online, regardless of his geographical location.

Supporting a variety of clients via conventional on-site visits is no longer an efficient model, as every IT consultant out there can confirm. Both clients and consultants are fond of facilitating circumstances, which reduce the time, effort, money, and other backbones of effective communication, which tells us that we’re discussing one of the cornerstones of today’s profitable business. Still, how are you supposed to do informed comparisons to choose the best remote support software programs for small business or enterprises? Going through our buyer’s guide is a great way to start.

A good course of action is to sign up for at least a few free trials or demo and basic unpaid plans from popular remote support software providers. With that method you will have the opportunity to test the important elements and you will get a good comparison of the capabilities of each app. The best thing to do is to try the list of platforms that currently have the highest SmartScore rankings and Customer Satisfaction Rating in our remote support software reviews: Zoho Assist reviews, TeamViewer (a free version for personal usage), SWAG, DeskRoll, GoToAssist, and MAXfocus RemoteManagement. 

Remote support software can be useful to any business, depending on the scope and complexity of the projects they’re implementing, and most of all the number of customers they ought to serve. These are some of the scenarios in which the best remote support tools can be really helpful:

• Small Businesses looking to expand their client network. It is of critical importance for small businesses to report and collect information faster so that they will be able to serve as many clients as possible at the same time. At the same time, they need to keep services updated, and to cut costs as much as possible in order to invest in more important aspects of their business.
• Medium Businesses looking to cut on customer management costs. Medium businesses are undergoing the most important phase of their development, where the way they use resources can either make or break their market position. Remote support software can be very helpful to them, not just because they’ll be shifting resources from customer support to management issues, but also because they will become more reputable in their clients’ eyes.
• Large Businesses looking to connect branch offices with the head office. Remote support isn’t only about allowing agents to troubleshoot bugs on the dot and has a lot to do with how teams and individuals collaborate and help each other solve complex customer issues. This type of software cuts instrumental costs and accomplishment times and brings much better results than a traditional collaboration platform.

Individuals like freelance professionals and IT consultants can use remote support platforms to track issues, clients, and even perform remote access on a given device. Some free tools out there are also great for smaller businesses. For instance, you are assisting a not-so-tech-savvy employee to troubleshoot his computer. Instead of walking him through the steps, you can access his device remotely and do it for him.

• Zoho Assist: An outstanding member of Zoho’s productivity set that was designed to help small and mid-sized businesses take support on a whole new level of efficiency.
• TeamViewer: One of the most popular remote support programs with an extremely powerful system that can serve businesses of all scales and industries.
• SWAG: A well-known, free service that connects businesses and their operations, and keeps everybody in the company on the same page.
• DeskRoll: Another well-known application that suites various types of businesses, with a complex but intuitive set of features.
• GoToAssist: An advanced solution for technicians and IT managers, suitable for MAC, PC, and mobile devices. It is known by its strong collaboration features and the fact that it can serve even eight customers at a time.

Remote access, as one could guess from the name, is supposed to provide access technology solutions for companies to cut costs and improve productivity at the same time. Still, there are many things to consider before making a purchase, and one of them is to choose the right type of remote support software for your company:

• Free/Low-cost remote support utilities. In the world of remote software, it may happen that you ‘Get what you didn’t pay for.’ There are a few free or extremely affordable utilities with outstanding performance, most of them based on Virtual Network Computing to be downloaded in the office without any complex installation. They include both server and client components and allow devices to be accessed via alternate ports, assuming there are not too many administrative issues to handle.
• Commercial remote support tools. Commercial remote access programs are quite similar to VNC and remote desktop tools, with the main difference being they include a remote client program to communicate and access almost every device. They empower internal communication, synchronization, and file transfer, and have many out-of-the-box features, such as multimonitor support, compliance policies, etc.
• Cloud-hosted remote support tools. Cloud-based remote support tools are becoming more and more popular, and it is all due to the fact that clients don’t have to install them or take care of updating and maintenance issues. The VCN administrative overhead is out of the game, and access is possible with nothing but a web browser and a stable internet connection.

Remote software suppliers are quite advanced in synchronizing customer feedback with their development goals, which results in a dream-like feature list. These systems are so robust that you should compromise on nothing but the best, namely to look for a system which contains all of the following features:

• Connectivity. To start with, the provider must offer an easily accessible app that can be used on any device, and to enable it to tackle a long series of technical issues using nothing but internet connection. The central application will be the stop-shop of your agents and technicians, where they gather to discuss and complete tasks that have been assigned to them. The technical ‘heaviness’ of the app is that it requires no installation effort to be invested by the user, and it reconnects users through reboot machines even when their connection is poor. Observed from an agent’s perspective, a remote support system should be idealized to the point that it provides multi-session working, access to sessions without admin approval, communication and collaboration, and intelligent launching that selects the best deployment model instead of leaving this decision to them.
• High-Quality Sessions. Sessions should be visible and controllable, which imposes the need for them to be open for attendance by as many users as necessary. Therefore, user account control should be managed by the admin, instead of the provider himself. At the same time, sessions are non-intrusive and locally recorded for the user to keep in future, together with a package of files, folders, and real-time screenshots that can help him deal with similar problems independently. Agents should be able to perform tasks easily, and to centralize their toolbox on any device by simply dragging and dropping files. Ideally, they should be able to customize screen view to their purposes, making sure that they will stay in full screen mode to keep the user fully engaged (being blocked from performing action at the same time). This, however, doesn’t mean that the user and the agent won’t stay connected all the time: both the chat feature and the VoIP make sure that the user can make a question whenever that’s necessary.
• Easy Customization. Restricting a technician from customizing the environment he’s working at is like asking a painter to paint without colors. The issue is both disputable and absolutely necessary, which is how temporary configuration became a critical criterion when choosing a good remote support program. Customization includes partial, if not total modification of clients’ applications, including text variation, color altering, advertising with icons and images, choosing artistic themes, localizing the language, or integrating a compatible plugin to let you finish you work. Certain programs offer even CSS to complete more radical alterations, even if such often trigger security concerns.
• Collaboration Tools. Most remote support software solutions provide support teams with collaboration tools, ranging from live chat to task management modules. These allow different agents to pick up on unresolved issues due to dropped calls, switching channels, and escalations.
• Safeguards. Trust us: clients will always have a second thought of whether they should allow you to access their local data or not. You need to stay in control of micro-management security at all times, and let the hosting provider assume the responsibility risks. Users should be familiar with your role-based working model, and should be clear with the call-to-action which confirms your right to enter their local systems.Solid remote support systems support multiple security codes and compliances, such as HIPAA, PCI, 256-bit AES encryption, passwords, two-factor authentications and granular permissions, SSL layers, SQLite storage, video auditing, separate session codes, etc.

Bringing sanity back on the daily schedule of your hard-pressed IT team is never a bad idea. Contentment, however, is not the only benefit of using an advanced remote support system. Here are the rest of them:

• More customers on board. A proper remote support program will allow you to serve more customers in a shorter lapse of time, and to keep the ones you have satisfied with proactive maintenance of their systems. Scalable operations will bring profit on the long run, and they won’t require any specific expense to do so.
• Cost-effectiveness. Remote support puts your job in your hands: you’re not required to switch locations, meet clients in person, or develop solutions on dot. That means that costs related to traveling and completing tasks separately are eliminated, and your working hours become more billable and profitable.
• Out-of-the-office agents. Maintaining an out-of-office agent base is among the biggest benefits of running a remote support system, as it no longer takes to gather consultants in a single office, and to pay them extra hours for handling an inquiry right before the expiry of their working hours. This way, you get to hire agents for 24/7 support, and to pay them on task-basis wherever they are located.
• Multi-tasking. Remote support will allow agents to juggle multiple jobs at a time, and to make multiple appointments per day. Managers will also be able to track their performance, and extract invaluable information on customer satisfaction.
• Non-intrusive help. Clients won’t give up on the idea that you’re the one in charge of their problem, but that doesn’t mean they want you around while solving it. That’s why they appreciate when you handle the tech part ‘behind the curtain’, the same as you enjoy not being observed while doing it.
• Developing innovative business models. Doing more with less helps you scale your business in a way which produces more benefits for you and your customers. Therefore, you can offer fixed monthly contracts and vast promotions to make your work more competitive, influencing at the same time the cash flow and the customer satisfaction.

Price is an important aspect to consider when choosing the right software tool for you. For many operations, it is the most important factor to consider. And, pricing in today’s software market usually depends on payment schemes made available. Here are the most common ones.

• Free. There are free and freemium remote support software solutions that are quite robust. However, they may be quite limited to larger businesses. Growing businesses, on the other hand, may benefit from these especially if the platform allows users to upgrade their plans at a cost as needed.
• One-Time Payment. This is common among legacy software solutions that require manual on-premise installations to work. This payment scheme is somewhat convenient as you circumvent recurring charges. However, having licenses for one software version has one main disadvantage. You have to purchase a new version should there be a new one or when support ends for your current version.
• Monthly Plans. Monthly subscriptions are best for companies that don’t have deep budgets. Also, it is great for businesses that are at the beginning of software adoption as they can easily opt-out and switch products. However, monthly plans are usually priced higher than yearly subscriptions.
• Yearly Plans. Annual subscriptions are often cheaper than their monthly counterparts. However, it is hard to opt-out midway. Thus, it is recommended for companies who have deep budgets and who are committed to a software solution in the long haul.

When choosing a remote support software solution, you really have to find the best fit for your operational requirements. Many businesses, unfortunately, go for platforms with all the bells and whistles, thinking they’re the best possible solutions on the market. The problem is, they often end up using just a fraction of these tools’ features. That said, what you think as the best platform might not necessarily be the best fit for you. So, this is something to consider.

Lastly, you should mind the bottom line. And, that is getting ROI for your software adoption troubles. Moreover, you should consider that adoption doesn’t stop at purchasing the platform. It continues throughout your training process to your daily operational use. Thus, you need to find a way to measure and monitor the rate of ROI, considering all the types of resources being invested, from money to time and other technical dependencies like hardware and depreciation costs.